Derelict (Earth-5875)
The "Derelict", codenamed Origin by the Office of Naval Intelligence, was a crashed ship of unknown origin left stranded on Acheron, a moon in the Zeta Reticuli system. Its pilot was able to send a warning beacon before it died, so that future travelers would not go inside the ship. In the 26th century, the ship was discovered by the Office of Naval Intelligence, which covertly sent the Weyland-Yutani Corporation freighter ''Nostromo'' as a guinea pig to investigate, without the crew's knowledge. History Origins The origins of the Derelict is shrouded in mystery, as it is of its pilot, the Traveler. It is unknown how the ship crash-landed on Acheron, whether it was deliberately crashed by its custodian or unintentionally; the only known information based on records by the Office of Naval Intelligence and the crew of the ''Nostromo'' is that the ship carried a cargo of xenomorph Ovomorphs for reasons unknown; the fossilized remains of the Traveler seem to indicate the ship fell on the moon thousands of years in the past, not long after the activation of the Halo Array by the forerunners, indicating the species of the Traveler was able to quickly develop technology and space-flight following their reintroduction in accordance to the forerunners' Conservation Measure. Before the death of the Traveler, the alien was able to send a message beacon to keep other potential sapient species from staying away from Acheron duo to the xenomorph cargo. Discovery , Joan Lambert, and Thomas Kane discovering the Traveler's body.]] In an ironic twist of fate, the beacon was detected by the Office of Naval Intelligence on May 14th, 2528, and the crew of the Nostromo was intentionally rerouted to the Zeta Reticuli system, on June 2528, in order to investigate the signal and capture a living xenomorph, as ONI sought to use it as a bioweapon against the Covenant during the First Contact War. Upon landing on Acheron, three of the ship's crew members - Arthur Dallas, Thomas Kane, and Joan Lambert - located the Derelict, and once they boarded, Kane was attacked and impregnated by a Facehugger while investigating the Ovomorphs. The ship left the system, and the subsequent xenomorph that was birthed from Kane started a massacre against the crew, leading its only survivor, Ellen Ripley, to destroy the ship in an attempt to kill the creature. Rediscovery after being impregnated by a Facehugger.]] Despite the tragedy and failure of the Nostromo expedition, the Office of Naval Intelligence continued on their attempt to capture xenomorphs from the moon. On June 28th, 2536, eight years after the incident, Russ and Anne Jorden, two explorers and salvagers from the Outer colony Paraíso were hired by ONI as expendable fodder to explore Acheron and bring Ovomorphs to one of their facilities on Paraíso. The couple was able to detect the beacon from the Derelict, which they explored, bringing many Ovomorphs with them aboard their ship with an Olifant. Once they arrived on Paraíso to deliver their cargo to ONI on July 10th, 2536, the couple was attacked and impregnated by Facehuggers, leading to a massive outbreak that had to be put down on July 27th by the UNSC; most of the colonists and UNSC Marines died during the assignment. The Anesidora .]] On December 6th, 2547, eleven years following the exploration that led to the outbreak on Paraíso, the crew of the salvaging ship Anesidora detected the Derelict's beacon, landing on Acheron to investigate the source of the signal and salvage any scrap they could find. The crew, led by Henry Marlow, discovered equipment that was left behind by the crew of the Nostromo, and Marlow was able to deactivate the beacon. While the crew continued to explore, Catherine Foster, Marlow's wife, found Ovomorphs that were left behind by Russ and Anne, ending up impregnated by a Facehugger. The crew immediately retreated to the ship with a comatose Foster, traveling to ''Sevastopol Station'' to seek medical attention. This proved to be a mistake, and the xenomorph that was born from her started to kill the inhabitants of the station. Specifications The Derelict is large, asymmetrical and wishbone-shaped, possessing a thickened central section between two horn-like structures. The prong measures 161.6 meters in length and the starboard prong 174.3 meters. The ship is 116.6 meters wide and 61.0 meters wide between the starboard and the prongs, which bend upwards. The ships has three massive openings, one of which was the location from where Arthur Dallas, Thomas Kane, and Joan Lambert entered. The functionality of these openings is unknown, although Kane theorized they were airlocks that were left opened for emergency evacuations. The interior of ship is one completely different from observed Covenant and even forerunner architecture, resembling a living, technorganic organism than a spaceship, not dissimilar from xenomorph hives, possibly indicating a connection. Its walls and ceilings resemble bones and organic body shapes. Kane theorized that the ship was a biological construct, and that it was "grown, rather than built" by the unknown species who constructed it. What was explored on the ship by all arriving parties were only small sections of the entire vessel. Beacon Perhaps the Derelict's most notable feature was its beacon, a device which transmitted an acoustic beacon, powerful enough to be detected light-years away from the Zeta Reticuli system. It was a warning set by the Traveler, the ship's pilot, to caution other sapient explorers to stay away from Acheron duo to the danger of the boarding xenomorphs. Unfortunately, duo to the alien language it transmitted, instead of warning visitors off, it only attracted attention to itself, leading the three human parties that arrived on the moon to inadvertently release xenomorphs. The beacon was eventually deactivated by Henry Marlow, of the ''Anesidora''. Cargo The Derelict's cargo holds stored thousands of Ovomorphs, although for what purpose is unknown. The cargo was covered in flat, blue mist, that made vision difficult and fuzzy; it has been theorized by the Office of Naval Intelligence the mist was a technology devised the species that built the ship to keep the Ovomorphs subdued and inert. The cargo hold was theorized to be either a cockpit meant to use the Ovomorphs as bioweapons or to study the xenomorphs. Crew It is unknown how many crew members were originally aboard the Derelict, aside from the solitary fossilized body of the Traveler, the ship's pilot. Much like the rest of the alien's ship, the Traveler's body seemed to be biologically fused with the command chair it sat upon, and its chest possessed a huge, gaping hole, indicating it had been impregnated by a Facehugger and that a Chestbuster originated from it, although its status is unknown. As all exploring parties that landed on Acheron found no evidence of life, it is likely that the resulting xenomorph died out as a result of no source of hosts for the continuing survival of the xenomorphs. Category:Earth-5875 Category:Ships of Earth-5875 Category:Created by Draft227